It's always nice to hear other's suggestions, ideas and experiences when it comes to travel. If you've been to St Maarten, when is your favorite time of year to go, where are some good dining spots, how can you get the best airline fares and what's your favorite part of the island.

Hi pamshue. Our 1 week stay in St. Martin included a stay at the Beach Plaza Hotel. This hotel suited our purpose perfectly. A small, clean and well kept hotel is our ideal choice. This gave us very easy access with only a couple of minutes walk to Marigot and its market, shopping and dining in Marina Royale. The time of year we went was in January. A perfect time of year for us as that is in the heart of our winter. The weather was just what we want with a few brief showers scattered throughout the week. We found dining in Marina Royale to be mid to a little higher price range. But every experience was nice and worth the money. The views here while dining are nice looking at all the boats in the marina. If you want higher end dining you really need to experience Grand Case which some call the dining capital of the caribbean. I'm sorry that I can't relate any particular restaurant names( but maybe someone else can help with that) but menus were presented out front to give you a look see. We rented a car for a day and made stops along the way at Friars Bay, (which looked like a nice beach) Grand Case and Orient Beach. If you like crowds and people watching then Orient Beach is the place you want to be. We opted on our last full day to take the bus back to Grand Case and spend a day on the beach there. we rented chairs and an umbrella from a fellow named Captain Frenchy. He was very accomodating with a simple supply of cold alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages. We strolled down the beach for lunch to one of the lolos set up at the pier. Was a great BBQ lunch for a very reasonable price. This beach was not busy at all while we were there. As for airfares, I can't really help you on that as we booked a charter package through a travel agent. I hope this helps you and answers some of your questions.

We've been 3x. Stayed at Residence De La Plage on Orient Beach, also Divi Little Bay, Turtle Pier, The Pelican and Royal Islander LaTeresse. I've already made plans to return next January to Residence de la Plage. We like it best I guess because of it's close proximity to the beach. It is more like an apt too so we can save some money on food if we choose to eat in. Our favorite restaurants this year were La California in Grand Case and Paris Bistro in Majo and the Boathouse. We enjoy going to Soprano's bar for the music and through some friends, we found a great musician named Watts who plays the horn and is excellent so we go wherever he may be playing too.We like Cupecoy, Orient and Happy Bay Beach along with Friar's and Mullet. You really can't go wrong at any beach. If it's windy, just try another. We always go In January as it's a nice getaway from winter cold and it's just after all the running around at Christmas so it's relaxing. We've met some wonderful people there and we like to hook up with them on each visit. It's a great place to vacation

This feedback is great and I really appreciate each of you taking the time to reply to my posting. We are so excited about going in November. We've been twice and each time gets better and better. We have always gone in March and April so November will be a new time of year for us. We stay at Royal Palm at Simpson Bay. We are members in Club Sunterra and that's one of our resort options. I hope to continue to hear feedback as I love reading about St Maarten. Have a great day!